ISSUE 446 -JANUARY 2013 ISSN 0257-361X 37. Jahrgang THE GAMES JOURNAL www.gamesjournal.at INTERNATIONAL EDITION: IN THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT 55 GAMES OUR REVIEW u TZOLK’IN used in a game, but are randomly selected FROM CHICHEN ITZA TO PALENQUE from a total of 13 monuments, so that there is enough variety) and six buildings. Those buildings are available from Level 1 build- TZOLK’IN ings for the first half of the game (position of THE MAYAN CALENDAR the cog wheel) and from Level 2 buildings in the second half of the game. The selection of buildings is replenished from stock - con- Take care!, This will be the shortest review those wheels), a big cog wheel in the mid- trary to the monuments - after a building in history: In your turn you must place a dle of the board which is moved by one cog was bought out of the display. minimum of one (or more, if you want) out of 26 and thereby moves the 5 smaller workers on the lowest available space on cog wheels. Due to this ingenious mechan- I want you to take a closer look at the cog one of the 5 cog wheels and pay the stated ics we are confronted here with a worker wheels with me. In Palenque you can only placement costs with corn - and depending placement game featuring an entirely new acquire corn or wood, when you take your on the number of workers you placed in ac- mechanism. worker back. Corn is essential - as already cordance with a table - additional corn or you take at least one (or more) workers off The workers that you park on the cog Gert Stöckl the wheels and either receive the respec- wheels for several rounds get more valuable A sophisticated worker placement game that keeps tive resource or corn or you can implement with each of those rounds, as the revenues fascinating me with its cog wheels. the respective action of the wheel. So, these in resources and choices of actions, in part have been 95% of the basic rules. It is phe- also coupled with accruing victory points - mentioned - for placing your workers, but nomenal, with what simple basic principle rise continually in value. In addition to the also to feed them; that happens four times you can make do in a top quality game! cog wheels there are three tracks for the in the game at the so called Harvest Cele- temples of gods, which yield, the higher you brations, when you must pay 2 corn for each As the foretold end of the world did not climb on their steps, victory points and also worker. If you cannot pay this amount you happen in December of 2012 I will have resources; and then there are three technol- lose 3 victory points for each worker you to tell you about the new game by CGE/ ogy tracks, which offer different additional could not feed. It is very important at that Heidelberger in more detail. The board fea- possibilities or improve actions acquired time to know that you can also slip below tures, in addition to five cog wheels with the from the cog wheels or reduce the costs Zero on the victory point track, something already mentioned revenues of resources of such actions. And then there are areas that is not explicitly mentioned in the rules. and choices of actions (marked around for exactly 6 monuments (only those 6 are Furthermore, you can acquire corn harvest tiles in Palenque, not to be mis- taken for corn, and wood har- vest tiles, not to be mistaken for wood, which can score lots of victory points at the end of the game, if you happen to have built the corresponding monu- ment and if it happened to be available. On the cog wheel of Yaxchilan you can also acquire wood and corn, but also stone and gold and - most important - one of the coveted crystal skulls. The skulls are essential for generat- ing victory points on the fifth wheel, Chichen Itza. You must deposit them there to be able to do any action on that wheel. If you manage to implement one of the high value actions at the end of this somewhat bigger wheel you are rewarded with a huge amount of victory points and also valuable advances on the temples of the gods. In Tikal (the cog wheel of that name, not the game) you can, besides acquiring the right for an advance movement on two different temples of the gods, mainly acquire progress on the Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 2 ISSUE 446 / JANUARY 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 40 and 41 www.gamesjournal.at TZOLK’IN / 40 LINES FOR MEEPLES t OUR REVIEW four different technology tracks or build- worker wouldn’t be bad, either, and to ad- ing and monument actions. This means vance on one technology track or the other that you have to acquire the right to take a would be super, too; for havens sake, I have monument or building tile with an action totally forgotten the temple god tracks; and from the wheel and, of course, this costs a that’s where you can really accrue a lot of rather substantial amount of wood, stone points if you are in first position. To grab the and/or gold. starting player once in order to place work- ers more cheaply would be advantage, too. Out of all the possible actions available from And this building, with which I can forget the cog wheel at Uxmal I only want to take a about feeding one worker would be nice, closer look at one of them, that is, taking an too, let me have it! And that monument additional worker from general stock into over there, that would be the top, it would your personal stock. All in all three addi- give me 18 victory points with 6 workers tional workers are available to supplement but the resources for that are soooooooooo your starting group of 3. In each worker hard to acquire.” placement game it is usually your duty, or at least, essential to buy yourself more actions So you see there is a lot to do in this game, by buying more workers first. This is not if only I could rid myself of those other play- necessarily the case in Tzolk’in, as I will have ers, who are permanently in my way. One to feed those additional workers, a total of this must be done in any case immediately, four times in the game. I have seen games a copy of Tzolk’in must be bought, because of Tzolk’in won by a player using four work- this gem of a modified worker placement ers and only acquiring this fourth worker game can under no circumstances be miss- 40 Lines for Meeples in the last third of the game. But of course, ing from the games cupboard of an expert Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief more workers give me more possibilities to player. People, make room for it! Hopefully act and to leave them longer on the wheels we will soon see more from those Italian de- to more easily reach the high-value revenue signers Daniele Tascini and Simone Luciani, The period after Christmas is also the time spots. and if it only were an expansion for Tzolk’in, where everybody can sort at leisure through which is bound to arrive! I‘m looking for- all the gifts he received from family mem- In Chichen Itza, as I did already mention, ward to it! bers, friends or colleagues at work. crystal skulls are essential to acquire points Gert Stöckl When it is known that I am a “gamer”, the re- there. The crystal skulls are, by the ways, actions of my little universe change. Were it limited to exactly 13 pieces, so that you INFORMATION such important things like candle sticks, vas- have to join the wheel early to not leave the PLAYERS: es, coffee cups or Christmas decorations that high-value positions on this wheel to other Designer: D. Tascini, S. Luciani 2-4 arrived, they suddenly change into boxes of players. Artist: Luciani, Tascini, Vavroň AGE: games, what a marvelous change! Price: ca. 40 Euro 13+ Especially then when currently a series of After each quarter-turn of the main cog Publisher: Heidelberger / CGE 2012 TIME: well-known games like Scrabble is published wheel in the middle there happens either a www.hds-fantasy.com 90+ as a chocolate edition or a totally unknown hand-out of additional resources or victory promotion game from a provider of mobile points, depending on the position of your facilities. scoring markers on the three temple god EVALUATION But what do I do when I could not wait and tracks. The first thing that is implemented Worker Placement bought myself the new games and then get at that point, though, is the Harvest Festival. For experts the same ones as a gift? Say thank you polite- Version: de Rules: de + en fr nl pl ly, the giver only had the best of intentions, Resume: Just like the cog wheels interlock In-game text: no and make a gift of the double to someone do the mechanisms in Tzol’kin interlock. The Comments: else, maybe you can carry the infection of strategies to win are manifold: This begins New mechanisms with cog wheels * games play into a new family! To give games Amazing components * Simple basic for a gift is always a good idea, you cannot already with the varying equipment of play- rules with a lot of decisions in details ers due to randomly drawn starting resourc- have enough games! es tiles.